Obituary for Professor Peter Ove Christensen

It is with deep sorrow that we have received the sad news that our former colleague Professor Peter Ove Christensen has passed away, much too early. Peter Ove was born on January 15, 1957, in Løgstrup near Viborg, and he celebrated his 60th birthday this past summer. He had moved to Aarhus in 1976 when he started his studies in Mathematics-Economics, and he earned his cand.scient.oecon. (Masters) degree in 1983. His academic career continued at University of Southern Denmark in Odense, where he was awarded the dr. oecon. (Doctoral) degree in 1990. During the period 2005-2014, he was professor at the Department of Economics and Business Economics at Aarhus University, and since then he has been professor at CBS.

Peter Ove’s research and teaching were in Accounting and Finance, and his work was published in several top journals, including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, and Management Science.

Over the years Peter Ove has made a huge collegial and unselfish contribution and been mentor and advisor for many Masters and PhD students.

The last 10-15 years he has been a driving force nationally in building research infrastructures, in particular in relation to data access for researchers. Thus, he was the founder and director of Danish Center for Accounting and Finance (D-CAF) and Danish Data Center for Accounting and Finance (D-DCAF). Most recently, he has been the driving force behind the establishment of Danish Research Data for Social Sciences (DRDS) and Danish Finance Institute (DFI). These tasks had just been accomplished and became his last big projects.

Besides his merits in research and teaching, Peter Ove was an esteemed colleague. His good mood easily spread to others, and his particular sense of humour and plain attitude stemming from his Jutland background will be missed. Even though Peter Ove spent a major part of his life on Funen where he lived, there was never any doubt that he was originally from Jutland.

He died on Thursday while working on the Christmas tree plantation at his parents’ farm near Viborg, which he had taken over.

Our thoughts go to Peter Ove’s wife, Else, and their three sons, Kasper, Esben, and Anders.

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